RoboCop (Synthetic Police) by 2014 says DARPA

Robotics is moving fast, with Mech units going on sale in Japan, and Drones the size of flies, how long did we really expect them not to use "Surrogates" as law enforcement and soldiers?

Because of the risks involved in rescue aid workers and human response teams, DARPA awarded Boston Dynamics, Inc. a $10.9 million contract to manufacture humanoid robots that are bi-pedal, built like humans and have a sensor head with on-board computing capabilities. Completion of the project is expected for August of 2014.

And i bet this is not the only surrogate program going on, a soldier that is 100% out of harms way, is very appealing to the army.

Another of DARPA’s interests into robotics is the Avatar for the allocation of bi-pedal robots and essential super-soldiers and has devoted $7 million of its $2.8 billion 2012 budget to developing “interfaces and algorithms to enable a soldier to effectively partner with a semi-autonomous bi-pedal machine and allow it to act as the soldier’s surrogate.”

The biggest stepping stone in the way right now, is a biological to technological interface, but once that is cracked, well, we will have law enforcement on the streets that are even further removed from the civilians that they are supposed to protect .

Source

Namaste.

Originally posted by WiseThinker

a soldier that is 100% out of harms way, is very appealing to the army.

I bet a soldier that never questions very evil orders is worth 10 times more to them

It's as simple as this. Replace current police officers with robot police officers in he future. No harm comes to anyone except the bad guys. Especially if those bad-guys are revolutionaries against an evil government.

A Robby robocop on every street corner sounds good to me. Start their mass-production now.

Scary, just imagine being pulled over and questioned by a robot cop

hya

thats bloody scary

imagine how many murders could be got away with
when will the first robot kill an inocent programmed by the murderer

scary times ahead

Originally posted by DaRAGE
It's as simple as this. Replace current police officers with robot police officers in he future. No harm comes to anyone except the bad guys. Especially if those bad-guys are revolutionaries against an evil government.

Depends on the definition of 'bad guy' that they programme it with.We all know how broad their definition of terrorist is.

Yea and there will be no chance of leniency. In the old days the copper might say Ahh its not worth the paper work he was only smoking a banned ats subject on the street, give u a little slap on the wrist and tell you to keep it at home. Can't see robots having a discerning judgement that can tell your a good fresh faced posh boy worth letting off.

Hmm i think this is wishful thinking..... it occurs to me that these ''robocops'' as any other device connected to a network would be susceptible to being hacked and that could be a problem.......i doubt it would take long for a motivated individual would find a way to take control and use them for his/her own agenda.........

and who knows how long before skynet goes online and wipes us all out....

everybody to the bunker

Well what DARPA are spending alot of money on, next to their robotics program, is a surrogate program (Human to Robot interface).

So i think what they want to accomplish is a police force (and army for that matter) of Robots controlled by operators sitting comfortable and safely at the police station.

Making a AI that would be smart enough to enforce the law, that seems at least a decade away, but who knows.

Namaste.

Originally posted by Lagrimas
Yea and there will be no chance of leniency. In the old days the copper might say Ahh its not worth the paper work he was only smoking a banned ats subject on the street, give u a little slap on the wrist and tell you to keep it at home. Can't see robots having a discerning judgement that can tell your a good fresh faced posh boy worth letting off.

Not having "discerning judgement" is the most appealing thing about this. Judgement is what makes cops beat homeless people to death and racially profile minorities. Judgement is the reason we have bad cops.

The law is not an interpreted concept, it is binary... just as its enforcers should be. As long as they are not allowed to be lethal (which they wouldn't need to be, believe me), I see them as being much better at keeping the peace and just leave the detective work to the fleshies.

I say let them patrol the streets. We'll devise a way to robo-nap them, and then our ATS boffins can reprogram them to go after the corrupt politicians and boot the whole useless lot of em out on their fat arses.

I'm sure they will work great!

For those of you who are (wisely) doubting this story because nothing non-blogish shows up in Google on this, I found a legitimate news source:

Washington Tech

Awesome, I firmly believe in this sort of advancement. Mainly because people will no longer be subject to whatever personal prejudice or bias a police officer may have. Police are from impartial and are some of the most moraly corrupt people I know, the most ive dealt with are quite simply just bad human beings, and it boggles the mind how on earth they possibly got a badge, I have my suspicions though and its because they are dumb, really really dumb.

Robotic law enforcers will eliminate all that, its going to be great. No more of this whining about police brutality, it just will not be possible.

Of course techno-phobes will believe these to be instruments of the dark lord, and its really a droid army programmed to take away our freedoms.

This technology, the way i see it in my mind, is decades away however, I think what DARPA could maybe achieve in a couple of years would be mobile CCTV platforms that can shout and people and probably taser them, controlled remotely by an operator.

Also another added benefit people need to understand about technology, the more we as a society can cut down on costs such as employing police, equipment, insurance, cars etc. The more money we have to spend where it actualy makes a difference, like on medicine, education and science.

Originally posted by Cyprex
I'm sure they will work great!

Yeah, I'm sure there will be a few minor bugs to work out.

"Somebody call a paramedic!"

Something tells me it might be a little too late for that...maybe the coroner?

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

Originally posted by Cyprex
I'm sure they will work great!

Yeah, I'm sure there will be a few minor bugs to work out.

"Somebody call a paramedic!"

Something tells me it might be a little too late for that...maybe the coroner?

YAAAA KILL THE LIVING SHEATT OUT OF EM!!! MAKE HIM PAY FOR HIS GROSS NEGLIGENT INSUBORDINATION!!

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

Originally posted by Cyprex
I'm sure they will work great!

Yeah, I'm sure there will be a few minor bugs to work out.

"Somebody call a paramedic!"

Something tells me it might be a little too late for that...maybe the coroner?

It's just a glitch

If this tech ever does become useful enough to be deployed I think there would be civil riots everywhere in protest, it is going to take a lot more misinformation and re-education to get people to accept robotic police, even if they are remotely controlled.